INDIANAPOLIS ””mdash; There were so many indications that
it wasn’t supposed to be like this, so many signs that this
wasn’t the year, that there was simply too much adversity to
overcome.
There was just too much youth, too much inexperience to be a
factor.
There were so many injuries, some slight, others significant,
and one season-ending.
There were crushing defeats, including one that was in a strange
way both far worse and far better than the others.
And after all that, tonight holds the chance for basketball
immortality.
UCLA (32-6) faces Florida (32-6) in the NCAA Championship
tonight, the culmination of a season the Bruins could have given up
a long time ago without much blame.
“It was hard,” freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
said. “It was hard to believe, but we kept on believing.
“I doubted how far we would go, but I didn’t stop
believing, and that’s what we did all year. Now we’re
here.”
That’s the answer you’ll get all the way down the
line. No one gave up; no one doubted; no one made excuses.
“You never doubt your team,” sophomore Lorenzo Mata
said. “You never doubt anybody. I believed in my team, I knew
that we were going to go far. I never doubted it, and we’re
here. We’re supposed to be here.”
That would have been difficult for anyone to believe earlier.
And to present this national title game as simply a battle of two
teams that have played well in March is to undervalue what UCLA has
done to get to this point.
The kids
When UCLA first took the court in early November for the
team’s first exhibition games, few knew what this season
would hold.
While sophomores Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo were expected
to lead the team, no one knew how five new freshmen would react to
the pressures of UCLA basketball.
Then no one knew how they would react to the pressures of
conference play.
Then no one knew how they would react to the pressures of March
Madness.
With one game left to play, it seems safe to say that
they’ve reacted pretty well.
“When you look at the youth of this team, certainly
it’s exceeded our expectations in a lot of ways,”
athletic director Dan Guerrero said. “These five freshmen
were very talented, but you never know how they’re going to
adapt and adjust to college life and how they’re going to
adjust to Division I-A basketball.
“And they’ve demonstrated clearly that they were
able to adjust.”
Four of the five freshman have played significant minutes this
season. Mbah a Moute, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, has started
all but one game. He had 17 points and nine rebounds in
Saturday’s semifinal victory over LSU.
While Mbah a Moute is the only freshman starter, fellow freshmen
Darren Collison, Alfred Aboya, and Mike Roll are typically the
first three players off the Bruin bench
Collison has backed up Farmar at point guard all season, filling
in at arguably the toughest position in college basketball.
“I don’t think Darren knows he’s a
freshman,” senior Ryan Hollins said.
While other teams such as North Carolina and Memphis have cited
youth for early tournament exits, UCLA has done nothing of the
kind.
“With the injuries we had, the freshmen stepped up and
made plays,” Collison said. “We’ve been doing it
all year.”
The knocks
But it wasn’t just youth the Bruins have had to overcome.
Injuries may be the most astounding aspect of the team’s
entire success story.
UCLA has had every scholarship player injured this season, and
seven players have missed a total of 87 games.
In one week back in January, sophomore forward Josh Shipp
announced he wouldn’t return for the remainder of the season
because of a hip injury, Mata broke his leg, Cedric Bozeman was
sitting out with a torn labrum in his shoulder, and the Bruins blew
a big lead and lost to Washington.
But none of it seemed to matter in the end.
“Coach (Howland) talked about fighting through
adversity,” Bozeman said.
“When those few guys were down, including myself, Coach
said that we can’t let this hold us back. And I think Coach
has built a mentality of toughness. Several guys stepped up. I
think it made us better as a team, and now it’s paying
off.”
Each time someone went down, someone else filled the void.
Bozeman’s injury gave Roll a chance to start.
Mata’s injury put pressure on Hollins to improve.
Farmar’s injuries have contributed to Collison’s
development.
“This team has gone through more adversity in terms of
injuries than any team I’ve ever heard of,” Howland
said. “What I think it’s done, it’s made us
better.”
The team has even been shaken by injuries this week.
Mata broke his nose for the second time this season, and Hollins
suffered a bruise above his right knee.
And yet again, it didn’t matter.
Mata played one of the best games of his college career against
LSU, and Hollins contributed important minutes.
“In my 20-plus years in this business, I’ve never
seen a team go through this kind of adversity from the standpoint
of injuries,” Guerrero said. “What’s so exciting
about this is to see the coaches embrace that adversity and not
allow the kids to use that as a crutch.”
The turning point
Perhaps the team’s only crutch this season came on Feb. 14
at the Los Angeles Sports Arena from crosstown rival USC, which
beat a Bruin team that was feeling pretty good about itself.
But after that loss, the Bruins catapulted to 12 straight
victories and an NCAA Championship appearance.
“I think about what John Wooden said,” Collison
said. “You’ve got to learn how to handle adversity, and
you’ve got to learn how to handle success. When we came
across USC, that woke us up.
“We’ve never looked back from there.”
All of the Bruins have described the team’s practice the
following Tuesday as their season’s best. Howland has called
it the best practice he’s ever seen.
From that low point in February, the defense has picked up, and
the team hasn’t let down.
“Right when we lost against USC, it changed
everything,” Aboya said. “We started practicing harder,
and you could feel that. Everybody started going after each
other.”
During their 12-game winning streak, Bruin opponents are
averaging just 53.9 points per game. Three of the team’s five
NCAA Tournament opponents have scored less than 45.
And it all started one February day at the Sports Arena.
The focus
But none of the Bruins really want to talk about what this
season has been.
They will have their chance to reflect back on the youth, the
injuries, the losses, and put them all in perspective.
Right now they’re far too focused on the task at hand:
bringing a 12th NCAA basketball title back to Westwood.
“We’ll have time to soak it in if we get it done
after, for the rest of our lives,” Farmar said. “But I
think our focus is key, and we’ve done a good job of that all
year.
“Every time we do something well we don’t get too
high, and when we faltered against USC, we didn’t get too
low. We just try to get better every day, and that’s the
key.”
“All I’m focused on right now is the day at hand,
just trying to focus on giving our team the best chance to prepare
for (today’s) game,” Howland said.